


Just Checking: Audrey and Nathan

by serendipityxxi



Series: Just Checking [1]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 20:38:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5980342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>6 times one of our OT3 had to check just to make sure one of the others is okay post the Troubles and one time they didn't have to. Audrey checks in on Nathan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Checking: Audrey and Nathan

Logically, Audrey knows that Nathan is in a meeting with Dwight discussing handover of duties. It’s a necessary evil now that Nathan is chief again since Dwight was elected mayor by a landslide write in ballot. Audrey knows she isn’t needed in this meeting as Nathan’s partner. She knows he’s just behind the door and if she pressed her ear against it she would probably be able to hear him talking. Logically she knows he’s alive and safe and breathing behind that door because that’s how she left him not twenty minutes ago. Audrey is having a very hard time listening to logic’s side of the argument telling her to stay in her own office and do her paperwork. She casts a furtive glance out her own door again. Nathan’s is still shut. It’s been twenty minutes. Don’t they need a break? How much could they have to talk about anyway? It’s not like Nathan needed to be read in on the situation. They’d all lived it!

Coffee. She needs coffee. It’s a great excuse. She was getting herself a coffee, poked her head in to see if Nathan wanted one. Hell she could offer to get Dwight one too, whatever.

She knocks on the door and doesn’t wait for an answer. Just sticks her head in. Something in her chest relaxes when she finds him exactly where he’s meant to be, sitting behind his desk, blue eyes narrowed in confusion at her entrance.

“Parker?”

“Audrey,” Dwight greets.

“Hi,” she says, giving him her best everything-is-fine-I-am-not-losing-it smile. “Getting coffee. Do you guys want any?” she offered.

Nathan’s eyes narrow even further as if he can see through her smile which is ridiculous because she is fine and so is her smile.

“No, thanks,” he says slowly. 

“Dwight?” Audrey tries.

He only shakes his head as well. “I’m good, thanks,” he gives her a tight lipped smile.

Audrey nods. “Okay well… I guess I’ll just get one for me,” she smiles again and it has taken over her face, it’s stretching her cheeks, she can’t stop. She is completely losing it. She shuts Nathan’s door before either of them can say anything.

She leans against it for a moment just breathing, calming her racing heart. He is fine. She saw that. She heard that. Fine. She pushes herself away from the door and walks to the coffee machine and actually makes herself that cup of coffee. She closes her eyes and breathes in the scent, it’s harsh and bitter and helps her feel grounded. This is real. She’s here now. Nathan is alive and safe and breathing in there. Duke is alive and safe and breathing at the Gull. The Troubles are over.

Audrey cannot shake the panic from her veins, the adrenaline dripping insidious thoughts into her mind. She reminds those thoughts she just saw Nathan! He's fine! She picks up the cup and marches into her office, images of all the times she’s watched him die marching across her mind’s eye. Each blink brings a new image, blink - run over, blink - shot…She picks up the stack of paperwork from her desk and snags a pen from the cup there and walks right back into Nathan’s office.

“Don’t mind me,” she says, drinking in the sight of his confused face. “I’m just going to” she gestures to the couch, “finish this paperwork right here.”

Nathan and Dwight both follow her path to the couch, watch as she sits on one side and places the coffee on the ground around the corner so it doesn’t get kicked over.

“Parker?” Nathan asks and he looks concerned, which okay yes, is exactly what he probably should be, but dammit she didn’t want him to be. “Know we don’t need you for this meeting?” he says.

Audrey nods. “Yeah I just,” she falters here on her own brightness, loses the false cheer, “I’m just going to sit here. Won’t make a peep. Won’t interrupt you any more,” she says but Dwight is looking between the two of them and then he’s getting to his feet.

“Y’know I think we covered a lot today, Nathan. We can reschedule to go over the rest.” 

When he glances at Audrey she has the hysterical thought that Dwight was almost her step-father. She bites down on the urge to say ‘Thanks, Dad’ as he leaves, but only just.

Audrey closes her eyes and puts her hand to her temples, pressing fiercely. When she opens them again Nathan is crouched in front of her, his brows drawn together in worry, his mouth pursed just the way he always does when he’s about to say something he doesn’t know she’ll like and Audrey cannot help herself. She throws herself off the couch and into his arms holding onto him as if the world is ending, as if she’s drowning and he’s a life preserver and he just might be because the world already ended and they put it back together, because she might drown in this panic if she cannot feel the reassuring thump of his heart beneath her cheek. She presses close and Nathan’s fingers come up to tangle in her hair and smooth down her back. He’s saying something but she can’t make it out. The only things she can concentrate on are the thump thump of his heart and the regular expanding and contracting of his rib cage. She can feel him breathing, feel his heart beating and her own breathing begins to slow in response. 

“That’s it Parker,” he’s saying, soothing and gentle even though he can have no idea what’s going on. “Breathe with me,” he encourages, his long fingers moving up and down her back in slow patterns. She can feel them through her shirt warm and alive and so tender it makes Audrey choke.

“I just… I just needed to know you were okay,” she confesses and Nathan’s arms tighten around her. 

_“I’m okay, Parker,”_ he promises and kisses the side of her head.


End file.
